AA stating tomorrow aircraft request, 5 LATS, 2 VLATs.
Im pretty sure this was the Plaskett AA, but it could have been Timbers, but they are not currently flying tankers
4 Likes
AA ordering 4 S-2s to the incident. It sounds like he had released some earlier and would preferably like to get those same 4 back.
It sounds like night copters are in the works potentially.
4 Likes
Forecast
Spot Forecast for Plaskett Fire
.DISCUSSION…The western periphery of a high pressure system over
the Desert Southwest will remain over the wildfire tonight through
Thursday morning. The marine layer will remain compressed to near
sea level while hot/warm and dry conditions will prevail at the
wildfire with poor recovery tonight and Thursday morning and poor
daytime retention Thursday. Weak lower to mid level troughing will
arrive Thursday afternoon into Friday resulting in a non-zero chance
of showers and thunderstorms. The arrival of the weak trough Thursday
afternoon into Friday may also produce gusty and erratic winds.
.REST OF TODAY…
Sky/weather…Sunny.
Max temperature…84-92.
Min humidity…10-25 percent.
Wind (20 ft)…Northwest winds around 9 mph.
CWR…0 percent.
Chance of thunder…0 percent.
Mixing height…1000 to 1300 ft AGL.
Transport winds…Northwest around 11 mph.
Marine layer…None.
.TONIGHT…
Sky/weather…Clear. Patchy smoke.
Min temperature…71-75.
Max humidity…20-30 percent.
Wind (20 ft)…Northeast winds 7 to 12 mph.
CWR…0 percent.
Chance of thunder…0 percent.
Mixing height…300 to 500 ft AGL.
Transport winds…North around 10 mph.
Marine layer…None.
4 Likes
AA starting to release tankers for the evening.
Until now AA had:
1 VLAT, 4 type 1s, 4 S-2s.
Looking like they will have 2 night Chinooks.
6 Likes
AA on his way out talking to ops, made some comments about thinking they were going to catch it at one point this afternoon, but then rollout in the underslung line prevented that.
He did not sound optimistic they would catch it tonight and stated he would see them in the morning for likely more of the same.
I was surprised by the 40 acres downsize earlier in the day. But I cant imagine that it is still 40 acres after throwing 9 tankers at it almost all day.
5 Likes
I would love to hear from Zeke on his perspective on this. Terrain? We all know that area holds steep ground! So does the rest of the state in areas. But seems the column today showed more burned. Saw on and off from the Santa Cruz side all day.
5 Likes
It ran hard in brush on a south-facing slope for the initial run.
Backing now into dense north-facing ground. I saw a photo on WatchDuty taken nearby with a shitload of dead tanoak (sudden oak death hammered the coast over past 20 years).
No recent fire history (my mapping here goes back to 1980).
North slope here burned in 2000. Fire to the south is from the 80s.
Looks un-fun.
16 Likes
3 Likes
The night chinooks are in bound, Billings aviation.
3 Likes
Acreage in steep mountainous terrain is very deceiving. An acre is measured as a flat plane. Steep slopes could have 1 1/2 to 2 acres of surface area if measured on the incline. But when plotted on a flat plane it may only be 1 to 1 1/4 acres. The steeper the slope the more area to burn but still measures an acre.
11 Likes
We often referred to them as either map acres or cow acres. Although I would think GIS/GPS has eliminated the divergence, I’ll leave that discussion to the cartographers on here.
7 Likes
Thank you for your insight as always Zeke. Love the Lookout too.
8 Likes
Good morning. A fairly active thunderstorm is moving north from Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties right now. Should be interesting to see if it reaches and influences the fire areas on the Monterey today.
5 Likes
LPF-Plaskett extended freqs assigned:
Air Tactics FM: 172.700
Air/Ground: 169.2875
Victors: 125.525, 132.075, 135.725
Tacs 168.050 tone15, 168.200 tone15
edit: today’s IAP for LPF-Timber has Plaskett’s 220. I don’t see any mention of Plaskett on the 205 and the 204’s for DIV AA and ZZ show no comms, but the two new toned tacs above would make sense.
3 Likes
AA is putting the fire at less than one nautical mile from Coast Ridge Road and moving at a rapid rate of spread. It has also burned through yesterdays retardant lines on the north and east.
5 Likes
Are you talking about the Timber Incident??? if so, we need to move your post.
2 Likes
No the Plaskett is pushing through retardant lines from yesterday with crowning and torching currently.
6 Likes
Plssket Timber fire or Timber Plasket Fire soon?
2 Likes
I was listening to Plaskett Air Attack giving a sit-rep to Operations.
3 Likes